If you are a fan of one of the teams on The Hun School’s hockey schedule next season, there is some bad news for you.

Make that the next three years.

Hun (19-7-1), led by the fantastic freshman line of Evan Barratt, Jonathan Bendorf, and Blake Brown, knocked off Academy of the New Church 6-4 Tuesday at the Ice Land rink, winning the Independence League playoff trophy. The Raiders completed their tournament double, after they brought the Mercer County Tournament trophy back to Princeton last Friday night.

Barratt had a hand in all six goals Tuesday, scoring the first two, then assisting Bendorf on the Raiders’ last four. Bendorf had a third-period hat trick, including the game-winner with 8:25 left, and another less than two minutes later to give the Raiders some breathing room.

Brown had three assists, to give the top line 13 points on the day.

Hun never had more than a one-goal lead until that point; for each of its first four goals, ANC scored one to tie the game.

It wasn’t until the last Bendorf goal that the game finally looked to be going in Hun’s favor.

“Matt Mason, one of our assistant coaches, was saying the whole game that we just needed a two-goal lead,” Raiders head coach Ian McNally said. “But we could just never get it. So it was a bit of relief when the goal finally came. I think you saw it on their bench as well. They were there, they were there, then when we got the two-goal cushion they got a little deflated, then they took a penalty and it was over.”

Barratt scored his two goals in the first period, sandwiched between a Thomas Villante goal for ANC, giving the Raiders a 2-1 lead after one period. Two second-period goals for the visitors, from Alex Hyatt and Shane McCurdy, book-ended Bendorf’s first of the game, knotting the game at 3-3, and setting the scene for another third-period masterpiece from the Hun freshmen.

“They came out hard today,” Barratt said. “We had to match it, and we didn’t do it very well for the first two periods. But then we picked it up right from the go in the third. We want to use this to give us a boost for next year. We want to make a run at the Prep B title, as well as the MCT.”

“The Mercer final gave us some confidence to know we can go into the break tied and come out and win,” Bendorf said. “So when we went into the locker room 3-3, we knew we were going to win. Bobby gave us a big spark during the intermission, giving us a great speech to get us going.”

“This is a great way to end the season,” Brown said. “This is a great way to finish the year, and go into the offseason. Last year, we got one championship; this year we won the league, the county tournament, and the playoff. Now we have to build on that.”
For McNally, it is the perfect way to end a year, with two trophies in five days, and the prospect of a brilliant future.

“Whenever we played a team, and we were shaking hands afterwards, then they realize that the kids that just did all that damage are freshmen, we think, ‘Oh boy, it’s only going up from here,’” McNally said. “The future looks bright for us. We lose four skaters and two goalies, but we have 15 kids on the JV team that are chomping at the bit to be a part of this.”